Tim Niles is a founding member of Livable Raleigh and has been a resident of Raleigh for over 30 years.
Tim spoke at City Council on February 20, 2024:
I want to thank you for re-instating Citizen Advisory Councils (CACs) at your meeting last week on February 16, 2024.
At that meeting Mayor Baldwin claimed she did NOT coordinate the secret vote four years ago.
That’s simply NOT TRUE.
INDYWeek reported at the time:
“For that reason, Martin and Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin decided to keep this vote under wraps. They informed the media—including the INDY and CityLab—under an embargo and whipped votes in secrecy. The only council member left out of the loop was Cox, who is closely aligned with active CAC members.”
Read the entire piece here: Without Public Input or Notice
Four years ago when the city ended support for CACs, the responsibility for engagement on rezoning cases was handed over to developers Lock, Stock and Barrel.
They control the time, place and agenda for Neighborhood Meetings.
They have been known to provide misleading information to the public at these meetings making statements such as The Comprehensive Plan is irrelevant. And, these statements go unchallenged by city staff if there happen to be any city staff in attendance.
The fox is guarding the hen house.
It’s time for the city to take control back from the developers.
All the work the city has done to expand engagement opportunities could have been done while CACs remained in place.
The need for engagement was NEVER either/or. It has always been both/and.
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